health indicators | Overview

The research team at UT System Population Health includes epidemiologists, data analysts, psychologists, public health experts, and former state health administrators. We have extensive experience working with large health data sets as well as within complex bureaucracies.

As part of our mission, we are producing a series of analyses, reports, and maps that document the health of specific populations in Texas.

Drawing on data from five different sources, we have developed a series of maps that are intended to provide communities in Texas with information about their child maltreatment risk and to provide insight as to which factors are associated with that risk. These maps are an overview of community-level risk for maltreatment. Most users will be able to understand their community’s overall risk and risk profile from these maps. For those that would like more detailed maps with risk scores, they can be found here.

"Health Status of Northeast Texas: 2016" is the first in a series of reports UT System Population Health is producing that document the health of specific communities within Texas. The report, which uses detailed mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics, found that the region has extremely high age-adjusted mortality rates for heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and unintentional injury (e.g. car accidents). The rates in Northeast Texas were also higher than the Texas average for kidney disease, suicide, and infant mortality.

Utilizing recently released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we found that in 2016, less than a third of Texas adolescents were up-to-date on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations. Only Wyoming, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah had HPV vaccination coverage levels lower than Texas.

In order to document and understand this health indicator, UT System Population Health has calculated zip-code level infant mortality rates using data from Texas Vital Statistics Linked Birth and Death Records from 2011-2014 (1,543,167 births). Zip-code level infant mortality rates were calculated if there were more than 400 births to mothers living in that zip code. Of the 2,455 zip codes in Texas, infant mortality rates for 842 were calculated. While only 34% of the zip codes in the state could be calculated, these zip codes contained 93% of all the births in Texas over this four year period.

This interactive map reveals the populations and places in Texas where people can expect to live longer—or shorter—lives. Overall, the life expectancy in Texas is 78.5 years, but it varies greatly by populations and places. Navigate the map down to the ZIP Code level to learn about your community. Explore differences between women and men, or between blacks, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic whites.

In order to increase the availability and accessibility of local data, UT System Population Health used the 2013-2015 Texas birth records to generate ZIP-code-level measures of three maternal risk factors: pre-pregnancy obesity, smoking during pregnancy, and prenatal care utilization.

This analysis of severe maternal morbidity rates in Texas, and the large and small area maps that accompany it, are intended to improve the quantity and quality of information on a critical indicator of maternal health and safety in Texas. The hope is that these maps can inform policies and resource allocation at the state and local level, guide further research, and ultimately, help strengthen the design and evaluation of interventions to meet specific community needs.